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"One thing for sure, we will never get the full truth of this incident just as we never have for any major event."

I know -- it's maddening. We are being told that 58 people have died in a mass shooting -- but we'll probably never know how many of those were actually shot or were trampled to death in the resulting chaos. It makes no difference to the victims or families, but it is valuable information when we consider options in the event we are faced with future attacks.

Whether or not his weapon was automatic, semi automatic, not automatic, or some combination of the three, it is a relevant to me. He still used it to fire into a crowd of 22,000 people. I would be interested to know, just to know, but it would not change my assessment of the situation in the slightest.

I know the same cannot be true of the anti-gun people, who probably want to show that this guy had automatic weapons. So I guess I’m not anti-gun.

Whatever he was doing, we should try to make harder to do. We should be able to agree on the need to save lives from either armed crazies or terrorists. And if we can find a reasonably fulsome "truth" about the Vietnam War, the space shuttle explosions, and other crimes and disasters, we should be able to learn most of the nuances of this one.

Some reports suggest the guy was fairly affluent, in that event I imagine he could get hold of whatever he needed, legally or not.

Other reports say he had a background of psychological issues, was a recent divorcee and his father was on the FBI's most wanted list. Hopefully, were that true, these might raise red flags with the authorities that might prompt a query/review of his rights.

Regardless, reports are he had at least ten or more guns with him. It only takes one. How on earth you approach keeping guns out or the wrong hands, or removing them when someone 'turns' is anyone's guess. Are we all to be at the whim of mental breakdowns?

It is. though, completely impossible to defend even 80% against this kind of attack, short of hyping up security everywhere to completely impractical levels.

Ultimately, I feel at this point, given the information we have, there was nothing anyone could really do about this.

If what I have read is true regarding his mental state, perhaps NSR is right, and someone could have reported him, if they were close to him. Apparently he was a loner of some description though.

If you want this thread to stay open, don't even hint at gun control. We can discuss the events and what made this person do what he did but he did the crime (or someone else in a far more nefarious scenario). Leave the gun control stuff out of this, please. We already have thousands of gun laws and required background checks to legally purchase firearms.

I watched Anthony Bourdain "Parts Unknown" Sunday night. It was on Singapore. In between bowls of noodles he talked to the locals about life there. They seemed to have traded freedoms for security and are for the most part happy with that choice. We have already done this in a more limited way, but it appears we will have choices to make in the future. I guess it's all a matter of degree but is food for thought.

It seems like anyone crazy enough to do such an act would have a very difficult time making it to 64 years old and looking as "normal" as that guy did -- retired accountant, pilot's license, LTR relationship, nice house in a retirement community, etc.

It seems like for all the other nutjobs out there, their inherent "offness" gets sussed out to those who know them way, way before senior citizenship.

“It seems like anyone crazy enough to do such an act would have a very difficult time making it to 64 years old and looking as "normal" as that guy did -- retired accountant, pilot's license, LTR relationship, nice house in a retirement community, etc.”

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